Puppet on a String ReWrite
by Nellas Bean
Summary: A re-write. Deleted Part Two for rules set fy ff.net. There will be no sequal or anything. Thanks, enjoy.


Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! And all its' characters belong to Pioneer. Oh yes, any reference to Sailor Moon doesn't belong to me either (wink). I just couldn't resist putting it in there, so pretty-please-with-a-cherry-on-top don't sue me.

**_Author's Notes:_**_ 'Lo; okay, I am really sorry that Puppet on a String is not going so well (as with my other stories too); Writer's Block has been really cruel to me (still is, by the way), and I haven't been able to be satisfied by anything for...well, to put kindly, a really long time (more than seven months)...heh heh, bear with me please, I'm trying the best I can... Oh well, AT LEAST I'M ALIVE TO TELL THE TALE, mwahahaha. This is a re-write of POAS, in case you didn't notice; I've gotten plenty of advice to do so (pokes Dragon Demon). Oh yes...round of thanks should go around, eh? Well, let's see..._

_To Dragon Demon and ProdigieSon, you two are awesome people to talk to, and thanks for all the inspiration! :)_

_To WolfenDreamer and VashonPoet, though we don't talk much anymore, you two are great buddies to ask for help when I get around to finding you, heh heh. :)_

_Rats11, toads rule you weirdo, rats are close thirds (HEADLESS MANNEQUINS DOMINATE ALL!), oh, and thanks for being a great friend to talk to late at night when my dad hogs my room with his snoring...silly him! :O_

_To Mistry, one of my best friends in the whole world! Thanks for being sarcastic in my moody days (though I wasn't exactly appreciative of them in those good ole' days)_. _Thanks a bunch! :)_

_To Amber: LEAVE VASHONPOET ALONE!!! Heh, thanks for being a funny person in the most annoying class in school ever (Thematic Science...bleh...teacher's okay though...) I say again, you leave Vashon alone! :(_

_All right, before I'm done; the reason for the long break is to try and get something out of my head. I mean, when I first started All Alone, I didn't care whether or not I got reviews or not, because I didn't care for publicity (to put lightly :nod nod:). I knew I wasn't the best author in the world, but I kept trying, and somehow, after a period of time (I think I have my old story: Washu's Journal, to blame for this), publicity started going to my head and I wanted more than I was getting (if you read the author's notes on the chapters I think you'll understand). (Sigh) because of this, I started to become a perfectionist and just HAD to have the whole thing planned out to make the reader's happy (put lightly again)._

_I took the break to try and get this out of my head, and I think I'm successful! (Kicks old self). Hope you enjoy the new version. Disclaimer applies to all chapters. HAPPY NEW YEAR!_

**Dear March, come in!**

**How glad I am!**

**I looked for you before.**

**Put down your hat-**

**You must have walked-**

**How out of breath you are!**

**Dear March, how are you?**

**And the rest?**

**Did you leave Nature well?**

**Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,**

**I have so much to tell!**

-Part one, by Emily Dickinson-

**Puppet On A String (part one)**

                A young woman of eighteen yawned tiredly and relaxed herself into the comfy chair. Her amber eyes glazed as she rubbed them furiously to wake herself up. On the floor in front of her lay a fat old book; irritably (to her at least) it was one of the reasons she was exhausted. Reading for five hours, on cold, hard floor can be mean to the lower backside and boring for the brain.

                She brushed some cyan strands of hair from her face and yawned again. Textbooks were unrealistically boring...

                '**Sleepy, aren't we?' a soft, young, childish voice entered her brain.**

                The young woman groaned loudly and forced herself up.

                **'You suck,'-she sent the message back.**

                The starship she was in made a sudden stop, throwing the woman from the chair; her face hit the floor with a sickening thud.

                "That...was really...rude, Ryo-ohki," she said to the air, gently touching her sore lip that was cut. An onlooker might've thought she were mad, there was no person in sight.

                A crystal, large and encircling triangle/diamond, floated in front of the woman and suddenly a cat with big, bubbly gold eyes appears, looking slightly discomforted. **'Ryoko, go to sleep. I think I can handle eight hours by myself. Scram, scidoodle, get!'**

Ryoko slowly sat up from her spot on the floor, looking rather reluctant to leave the flat surface. "S-sorry...I'm just trying to figure out-"

                **'We both are, dummy, and have been for the last week or two!'**

"That's true-"

                **'So it really doesn't matter if you stay up or not! We haven't gotten anywhere with the flipping through big ole' textbooks,' when she saw that Ryoko was staying put, she yelled out, ****'Shut up and go to bed!' and jerked the ship upward to make Ryoko fall splat on the ground once more.**

                "You suck," Ryoko repeated in a defiant voice as she crawled to the chair and relaxed once again (though gripping the arms of the chair to make sure she didn't go anywhere is Ryo decided to be annoying).

                The starship-four gigantic black crystals pointing in the four compass directions, several smaller ones branching out on the bottom, they all connected to a large gem that was red and oval-started on its' (or rather, her) course again. 

                Here was the problem. They'd left home in search of Todain, their home planet, and had found it...but had they really? The planet they were looking for was way farther away-the maps (up to date)-had said so. So why was it here, in that orbit? It had puzzled the duo at first but now it was driving them up the wall, though neither of them chose to show it.

                The most logical thing would be to go to the place where Todain was supposed to be and check it out then. But the problem was that Ryo-ohki, her energy was quickly running out, she wouldn't be able to make it even if she tried. Plus Ryoko was being as stubborn as her mother and refused to leave until they'd figured out what and why.

                Yet even though Ryo-ohki wasn't showing it, she knew that she couldn't stay in starship form for less than a couple more days (which was odd, she could usually go for months without help). She was going to tell Ryoko soon or take this chance, go down to the ground, rest, and then come back.

                Ryo didn't want to! She refused to! It would betray Ryoko's trust...and it'd taken Washu dying to fully gain it...

                Ryo-ohki scanned the planet again. It was too boring, floating around in space doing nothing, she missed the yummy carrots they'd suddenly ran out of when the stupid food storage unit had abruptly opened out in space; they'd lost more than 3/4 of their supply of food. 

                It was quiet...

                Ryo was tired of the quiet.

                It was night again, not that they could tell, space revealed little about time. Ryoko was up with a terrible headache that made her incredibly annoying to be with.

                **'Ryoko...I have to tell you something...it's rather important,' Ryo-ohki admitted, best to get it over with.**

                "Sorry, I'm busy," the former pirate said hastily, flipping through more useless pages.

                **'No, this needs to be heard right now,' Ryo was serious. Dead serious.**

                Ryoko shut the book loudly and blinked rapidly, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Shoot."

                The crystal with a face in it moved in front of Ryoko's face again, though this time the eyes of the cat/rabbit weren't so apologetic, more furious. **'I-I...I can't hold this form much longer, I could if I had food, but we don't,'-the cabbit seemed to sigh, if that were possible-**'I only have two and a half days. We either land or I'm gonna die up here, all my energy used up.'****

The woman cursed madly to herself; she'd forgotten about how much energy Ryo needed to hold the starship form for long.

                "Crap! I'm sorry...I've forgotten how to take care of you. Geez, this really bites!" to emphasize her point, Ryoko deliberately punched herself.

                **'Take care of me? I'm flattered, really, but I can take care of myself!' the crystal face said mentally.**

                Ryoko looked up and her expression darkened (making the red bump on her cheek stand out), "Well then! Who's been giving you food? You fat excuse for a rabbit!"

                **'FAT EXCUSE FOR A RABBIT? Hah! Look at you, you ancient overgrown toad!' the cat/rabbit face smirked, a faint glimmer of slyness in those eyes.**

                Ryoko's eyes mimicked the same glimmer of excitement, amusement. "Overgrown toad, eh? Nerd, that's something you call a fat excuse for a rabbit, not a poor lil' lady like me," she feigned a delicateness, clapping her hands together and forcing two well made tears to come rolling out of her eyes while blinking so rapidly she looked like an idiot.

                **'Quit acting, you old hag, and sit! I need a place to go and I need to go now!'**

"Just land here, I don't see anything wrong with it and I'm tired of sitting in here."

                **'But Ryoko, we don't know anything about it, it could be dangerous...' Ryo-ohki protested meekly.**

                "Blah, blah, blah. There's not anything we can land on, not for a long while. I think this place is safe enough, if it weren't-"

                Ryo-ohki cut her off, **'Ryoko, it's not that I don't trust your judgment, I just don't know about this...it could be a trick...'**

"Do you want to get out of here or not?" Ryoko huffed stubbornly.

                **'Well, yeah-'**

"_Then move!"_

                The starship grunted unhappily, **'I just said... You didn't hear a thing I said, did you?'**

"Nope."

                Ryo-ohki grinned, if that were possible in her current state, **'Thought so.'**

The ex-pirate grinned and then kicked the crystal, "Get movin'!"

                **'All right...but if anything happens, it's your fault!'**

"Don't plan on it."

                As the starship neared the planet with increasing speed, Ryoko was quickly looking through the supplies they'd brought with. It wasn't much; they'd left in the space of an hour, mainly a couple boxes with clothes (Ryo-ohki, the zany devil, had snuck in a picture with everyone in it to make sure they didn't forget).

                The thought of leaving their 'home' on earth still bothered Ryoko quite a bit, eating at her brain in her sleep; but it was nonsense, they'd been gone for nearly a month. It wasn't regret that she kept feeling, just a wonder at why they'd left in the first place. She thought it awkward that a thought nearly ordering her to leave has started a mere five seconds after the resurrection had taken place. It'd been saying, 'Flee! Run away! Run, run, run!'

                Ryoko had ignored it for a little less than an hour, but 'the voice' (as she came to dub it) had kept getting louder and louder until she couldn't do anything except throw her hands up in the air and wail loudly: "Stop it! Stop! Stop iiiiit!"

                Ryo-ohki wouldn't admit it...but she'd heard the voice also...

                As the atmosphere began to drag the two of them in, Ryoko'd phased into her loose, 'play', clothing, not particularly caring what happened to that outfit.

                White-hot heat began to engulf Ryo-ohki, though she could barely feel it...it hurt so much she couldn't feel it at all...a new dimension of pain crossed... Kagato had seen to that...

                The ship began to rumble, and Ryoko gently pressed her hands onto the center control, closing her eyes to help Ryo-ohki through it-standard procedure they'd practiced so Ryo-ohki wouldn't fall flat unconscious.

                Ryo-ohki began to fall towards the ground...

                "Oh, no!" Ryoko cried out as she tried to get her little sister under control. But to no avail, the controls seemed out of whack and their mental telepathy seemed to have blocked itself.

                Yet suddenly, as soon as the decent began, Ryo-ohki stopped, as if some unknown force was making the poor animal bend to its' will.

                "Ryo! Are you all right?" Ryoko tried to shout, but something was blocking her vocals...

                All went black...

                _Dazzling colors of orange and red engulfed her entire vision. The sky was a dark blood red, shouts cried out in agony...all that fire...burning them alive..._

_                A woman floated up deftly in the air, her face expressionless-blank-. How could one watch all this with no emotion whatsoever?_

_                The woman was clothed in jet-black robes, which blossomed out at the end of the sleeves, dark red exposing itself. It looked like roses blooming on her wrists. In her hand-covered in blood-was a small, red, gem, which glowed as if in panic. Her eyes went white, pupils rolled up in the sockets, as a putrid green aura to surround her._

_                But then it stopped; the woman's eyes-she could now see a dark shade of green-came back into focus. She seemed terrified._

_                Descending to the ground, she began to walk toward another-young-woman, who stood watching the whole scenario with complete and utter horror in her eyes._

_                The elder one still came nearer, and the others spine had shivers running down it like scared mice on the Grandfather Clock in the nursery rhyme. The older was now stood so close to the younger that their noses nearly touched. And then she spoke a word in another language, yet still the other understood._

"Run."

                Ryoko stepped over another large boulder and continued on her way to where she thought their old home would be...though there was no question that the house was now rubble.

                Ryo-ohki now lay resting in a medium sized pouch slung on the ex-pirates belt. After that strange experience entering the planet, Ryoko couldn't blame her one bit.

                She yawned and stretched, nothing lived here! Knowing Washu, Ryoko could have sworn her soul that she'd pick a place with more action. This place was way too quiet to serve that scientist right. Well, there was also the chance she wanted to get away from civilization; but remembering a story she'd widdled out of her one day as a child, Washu had taught at a local academy...but where was it? There was nothing for miles around except Nature!

                "This stinks," she said quietly. Ryoko had been hoping for at least a little action; the quiet just didn't suit her tastes. She'd been hoping for at least a little cop and robber chase...

                Ryoko sighed and pushed past some more brush. They'd landed a lot farther away than originally intended, but it was that dumb atmosphere's fault! Clogging up their poor throats with stuff the young woman didn't even want to know about...

                Rain started to fall. Though Ryoko usually loved the rain, the weather was just pissing her off. She darted for a small cave and hid there for a while.

                It stormed for the majority of that day; so when it finally stopped tempers were very short.

                Ryo-ohki was by far the most furious. She was mad because Ryoko had purposely pushed her into a puddle in a gentle game of 'Cat and Mouse' (though by the remains of powder and dust inside the cave, their idea of gentle is very peculiar indeed) and now Ryo's 'precious fur' smelled musty and felt very sticky.

                Ryoko was mad because that little Oni had stuffed a handful of mud into her mouth as revenge for getting her wet. She could still taste the remnants in her mouth as she grimaced at the memory.

                The forest they'd been walking through seemed to lighten up; the dense vegetation was now beginning to be rare. The sun shown brightly through the white sky. It was still a bit funny feeling for Ryoko to look at the sky and see white...yet at the same time seem so familiar...

                **'So...kind of weird to be back, don't you think?' Ryo-ohki asked out of the blue, looking up at Ryoko with her humanoid child face.**

                "Hm? Yeah, I guess. Aren't you still ticked?"

                **'I was only trying to start a conversation!' Ryo shouted accusingly.**

                "That's not what I meant!" Ryoko waved her hands around frantically.

                **'Well, FINE. If you don't want to talk nicely, I DON'T CARE!'**

"Fine!"

                **'Fine!'**

The feeble attempt at conversation had obviously ended badly.

                The sky began to glow a half gold half gray color as the sun started to begin its' quest towards the ground. Tempers were still quite short; neither of them had spoken since that afternoon (or in Ryo's case, telepathy).

                The mountains in the distance seemed to be aflame by the sun's last glares. It caught the interest of both of them; once, long ago on this very planet they'd both claimed themselves to be the most obsessed pyromaniacs in the galaxy (a thing Washu wasn't too proud of). In their younger days, they had set many things on fire and made the excuses that they were research project failures, meant essentially for education (while they had also cleverly crossed their fingers/paws).

                Yet the 'aflame' mountains soon went back to being just mountains, and the two of them were once again mad.

                **'Where are we going again?'** Ryo-ohki asked, stifling a yawn.

                "Pinhead," Ryoko remarked with frustration but she sent a picture of a house just to help a little bit.

                **'Ah, now I remember,'** the humanoid said softly; this 'being mad' thing was old, yet they were both too stubborn to let up.

                It was getting dark now, and Ryo-ohki was really agitated by the uncomfortable silence.

                Not just because of the tension between them, however, but because of the time. Last she could remember of Todain was that the days were usually shorter than this…it should be completely dark by now.

                Then again, last time she was here the sky was a different color _and_ there'd been an extreme amount of population; she'd seen none so far…

                'Whew, five thousand years must be longer than I thought,' Ryo said to herself.

                Ryoko suddenly plopped down on the ground, breathing unsteadily and in raggedy breaths.

                **'Huh? What's wrong? You look like you've been hit by a train,'** Ryo-ohki cast a worried glance at her.

                Ryoko held her breath for a moment, trying to ease the pain. Then she grinned reassuringly at the humanoid, "No…everything's fine…"

                As it was, she was wrong…

                As a couple more days went by, Ryoko was getting worse and worse, thought for some reason-pride? -She refused to admit it. Yet Ryo-ohki noticed…it was hard not to.

                The first few hours after she'd fell to the ground, Ryoko was drenched in cold sweat and running a high fever. The next day Ryo had woken up and heard Ryoko heaving her guts into the bushes nearby. Yesterday, Ryoko had fainted two times and collapsed three. Once the humanoid had tried to get her sister to rest, yet had found that to be a mistake because Ryoko had fainted in her anger and had nearly choked on vomit in her sleep.

                This day, however, Ryoko's face was as white as a ghost, she kept trying to get warmer clothes on several times (though it was very hot and humid out), and her pale hands kept on shaking…they just wouldn't stop shaking…

                **'Ryoko…'** the girl started.

                "I told you I'm _fine,_ quit being so caring!" Ryoko rounded sharply, staring angrily at Ryo with those amber eyes, they seemed to be the only thing alive in her.

                Ryo-ohki glared back at Ryoko, **'I've had about enough of this! You're sick! Dead sick! You're going to kill yourself if you keep pushing it like this! Look in a _mirror_, Ryoko!'** she yelled furiously, clenching her fists so tight she felt her nails biting into her skin.

                Ryoko's pale face turned really red (probably due to her being really angry). Her eyes flashed dangerously as she turned swiftly around and stalked off, coughing loudly.

                Ryo didn't like this. She wasn't angry, not at all! But what she saw on Ryoko's hand before she'd wiped it away…

                _Blood_…

                She'd had enough; Ryo charged forward and tackled Ryoko to the ground, trying to ignore the pain filled gasp that emitted from her sister. It was an easy fight, Ryoko's sickness had led her to not seeing clearly, so the punches made to try and get her sister off were weak and usually completely off target.

                Now that she had her pinned to the ground, she could really understand why Ryoko had tried to put on so many layers of clothes. Her skin was so cold and sweaty that it was hard to keep a firm grip on her wrists. Ryo glared menacingly at her, trying her hardest to ignore the deep feeling of regret for hurting one so sick… Ryoko looked like a frightened child, flinching before the raised hand of an adult.

                **'Sleep…rest easy, now…'** Ryo-ohki said gently, trying to force Ryoko to go to sleep by sending an immense amount of warmth into her, not exactly to warm her up, but the kind of heat that makes you drowsy, like sitting near a fireplace.

                The effects worked almost instantly, Ryoko's eyes fell halfway and her hands stopped twitching in a vain attempt to get free. Her body went suddenly rigid as her eyes closed all the way, steady breathing coming out now.

                Relieved (and half exasperated), Ryo crawled off Ryoko and shifted her so that she lay on her side. For the moment she was stumped on doing anything else. So Ryo sat down tiredly and lay down also, never taking her eyes off Ryoko.

                The next morning seemed to be a little better, though Ryoko was still pale and refused to eat, but other than that she seemed to be coming around; her fever wasn't as bad either. As Ryoko lay huddled in a little ball of blankets (it hadn't occurred to them to bring very many, temperatures didn't usually affect them) Ryo ate a couple of their few carrots and somehow managed to get Ryoko to eat one green grape and a bite of banana (both of which they'd found in the now sparse vegetation). To be fair, Ryoko was really mad after that.

                They didn't go anywhere that day; Ryo had refused to go anyplace until Ryoko's fever had dropped another two degrees. Ryoko was also mad at this decision, for her fever hadn't dropped but one degree since a couple days ago. After that, Ryo had watched Ryoko from a safe distance away, not wanting to hear any more complaining.

                The day went by fairly quickly, though Ryoko kept droning on that she was fine and they could get going now (after each of these complaints Ryo-ohki patiently asked whether she'd like to travel shorter each day feeling like crud, or travel a long distance each day feeling great; to these Ryoko shut up immediately). Ryoko nibbled on the rest of her banana slowly, pulling her blanket tighter around herself. Being sick was harder than she thought or remembered.

                Ryo-ohki smiled and requested a Truth or Dare game, of which Ryoko sorely rejected (Ryoko hated playing unless she was sure that she could cream someone with bad questions and horrible dares).

                **'Hey…remember that one time when everyone was playing Strip Poker and Truth or Dare mixed?'** Ryo asked, grinning like a maniac.

                Ryoko sputtered and looked disgusted, it was clearly not one of her best memories.

                **'Washu and Mihoshi had to-'**

"Shut up…I'd _really_ like to wipe that from my memory," Ryoko said irritably, her left eyebrow twitching. "Oh my, that night has scarred me forever," she clutched her chest in imitation to a heart attack.

                Ryo laughed; that night had given her nightmares for weeks.

                "Of course, most of us were drunk, I'd like to think that they don't remember anything of that awful, awful night," Ryoko said quietly, coughing.

                The girl nodded, it was a good thing Sasami had been sleeping… She tried to point this out to Ryoko but found that she'd fallen dead asleep.

                'I think she took my saying "rest easy" a little bit too literal…' Ryo muttered to herself with a chuckle.

                Ryoko woke up first the next day feeling much better and extremely hungry; though being cold was one of the after effects of being sick so long. She helped herself to a meal of a jelly sandwich and a cup of water. Her teeth chattered noisily, making it rather hard to eat when her body started shaking from a spasm of cold.

                Suddenly she felt a blanket fall around her shoulders, draping down her back, and Ryoko saw her sister trying to hold her still and still warm her up at the same time.

                "Thank you," she said with many ounces of caring mixed in as she took her first bit…it didn't really occur to her that she hadn't eaten in nearly a week (that pitiful excuse for breakfast the day before didn't count).

                The sun was up in high noon before they began to walk again, Ryo didn't want to go too fast, but Ryoko was insisting persistently that she was okay; Ryo-ohki ignored most of it.

                Ryoko was still cold even with the blankets secured like robes on her, but had enough mind to keep her mouth shut if she didn't want to lose a tooth for complaining when Ryo had done all this work.

                Still they found no life (except plants), not even a bug. Ryo-ohki had found this odd; Todain was known for its' farmland and strange creatures like the mass…this was really starting to worry her, everything was too different…

                "M…M-Minagi?" came Ryoko's shocked voice, followed by a small fit of coughing.

                Ryo jerked her head up, and sure enough…there was Minagi.

                She was smiling at the two, seemed a bit too happy, and her clothing looked a bit different…

                "Hi!" she greeted cheerfully, walking up to them.

                Ryo-ohki didn't like it one bit, she glanced questioning at Ryoko, who looked absolutely overjoyed to see her.

                "Minagi! It's great to see you!" Ryoko said happily.

                'She's lost her touch,' Ryo thought disdainfully, Ryoko should've noticed something fishy by now…

                Minagi walked nearer still, and then stopped at a respectable distance away from the duo. She then shot a mean glance at Ryo-ohki, but before either of them could decide if they'd really saw it or not, the face was gone. She began a conversation with Ryoko.

                As the two chatted away (Ryoko coughing every once in awhile), Ryo sat down and examined Ryoko and Minagi. They both certainly _looked_ normal enough, but Minagi still felt a little strange to Ryo…

                Why…_ How_ did Minagi find them? It was as if she'd popped out of nowhere… It was too impossible…too _impossible…_

                Minagi's eyes were rather blank…

                Minagi traveled with the two now; Ryo-ohki had been reluctant to let her though, but now that it was settled, she traveled in back to keep watch on the other people.

                Ryoko hadn't even asked _how_ or _why_ Minagi had found them; that worried Ryo even more, Ryoko was never this dumb.

                Then again, why would she? They were practically twins after all…

                Ryo-ohki folded her small arms and thought for a moment, Minagi popping out of nowhere was suspicious… Maybe she was sent to look for them.

                She quickly banished the thought. They'd made absolutely no mistake in covering their tracks, one of the reasons they weren't chased by anyone, in fact.

                So what was it? It made Ryo frustrated that she couldn't figure it out. She hated problems she couldn't figure out! Made you think a little too much.

                "Hey, you alright back there?" Ryoko called to her, her attention for Minagi postponed.

                **'I'm fine; go along with your happy little chit chat now,'** Ryo snarled.

                "Well excuuuse me!" Ryoko snorted, turning back around. She disliked trying to start conversation with a grouchy person (minus Ayeka). Minagi cast a sidelong glance at Ryo-ohki, those blank eyes frightening her.

                Ryo averted her gaze. 'Why don't I trust this? Minagi and I are buddies…'

                They pit stopped at Ryo's request to have Ryoko rest a bit. Ryoko'd been very reluctant to do this, saying once again that she was fine. But Ryo was extra angry, so in the end she'd picked Ryoko up and thrown her to a soft spot and stomped off, her eyes looking on fire.

                "Owww… I feel like throwing up again…" Ryoko garbled, a shiver racking through her body once more.

                Minagi stared blankly at Ryoko.

                "W-What? Is there something on my face?" Ryoko asked, sitting up slowly.

                Minagi continued to stare, though her mouth formed the words, "No…just wondering why Ryo-ohki doesn't seem to trust me."

                "Oh, that? She's probably mad at you because she can't figure out how or why you're here… I'm a little curious myself," Ryoko put her face onto her hands. "Why are you here?"

                "'Why are you here?'" Ryo-ohki heard at last, she'd been waiting to hear that all day. 'So Ryoko…you haven't lost your touch, but you sure have gotten slow!'

                Minagi looked sick at the question, all the color rushing from her face. Ryoko noticed this and was confused; it was just a simple question.

                "I don't remember," Minagi, said quickly and stiffly, her whole body totally straight.

                Ryoko regarded her suspiciously; Minagi was obviously lying.

                "Don't lie to me…"

                "_I'm not lying!_"

                The ex-pirate grumbled and stood up, ignoring the feeling of nausea that had overcome her.

                "Hey, Ryo? I think we can go now!" Ryoko yelled in the direction Ryo had stomped off. The call was answered by Ryo-ohki's head popping out from behind a big pile of boulders. She started to walk over; Minagi was sitting with a shocked expression.

                "Where are we going?" she asked, standing up.

                "Our old house… Well, where Ryo and I used to live. It's not going to be anything but rubble though. I think in the direction of the mountains."

                Minagi immediately froze, but then loosened and tried to put on a smile, though they could both tell it'd been forced.

                "How long will it take?" she asked, taking a step forward to follow them.

                Ryo shrugged and held up three fingers lazily, but didn't care to tell her mentally. She still thought Minagi appearing to be fishy.

                As Ryoko started to speed up, Ryo-ohki fell back in line with Minagi.

                Ryoko's twin looked curiously at Ryo, obviously confused.

                **'Why are you here…?'**

"I don't know, Ryoko just asked me that."

                **'Well then…if you don't know, then where's Hinase? That computer despised you going out on your own!'**

Minagi laughed, "That's true. The last thing I remember is some transmission coming in…then I was in front of a planet that looked like a good mix of Earth and Ranti. You know what Ranti is, right?"

                Ryo nodded, **'Planet of Illusion. Famed for its' peoples' intense study of subspace. Almost everyone knows that.'**

"Key word is almost. A lot of people forget about it and end up seeing the illusion the planet gives them…not a lot of people know what it really looks like. Anyway, the planet seemed to suck us in and then I went black. Had a weird dream. I don't know what happened to Hinase," she looked sad.

                **'I'm sorry,' **Ryo said with a little regret, she turned around and dropped back a little more, allowing the two to be in front.

                'Maybe I was wrong…' Ryo said to herself, Minagi seemed real enough… For the moment she was going to be nice. As she smiled at her seemingly great decision, Ryo-ohki started to skip ahead.

                Too caught up in her decision, she didn't notice Minagi looked heartbroken.

                The rest of the way was rather uneventful. Ryo had started talking again, and any suspicions about Minagi disappeared completely. Ryoko recovered fully, except for the fact that she felt nausea every time she moved too quickly.

                They had made it to the mountains by the end of the day when Ryoko finally called it quits; the feeling to throw up was now getting too strong for her to bear. So, they made a small camp, intending to stay for a couple days, feeling they'd deserved a vacation-and settled in.

                Minagi stretched her arms, the hiking they'd done today was really starting to pay the toll. She rubbed her eyes fiercely, trying to wake herself up.

                Ryoko started a small conversation with Ryo, who happily obliged to chatting.

                **'So how are you feeling?'** Ryo-ohki asked politely, overjoyed to eat a couple of cooked carrots.

                The ex-pirate sat for a second, a wave of nausea had swept over her once again; then she said in a small, squeaky voice, "Oh yeah, everything is fine, heh-heh," she rubbed the back of her head with a sweaty palm. 

                Ryo looked at her curiously (Minagi was doing the same), as if suspecting the fib. But if she had, she shrugged it off as a bad notion and took another bite of carrot. Minagi, however, didn't look as convinced. She kept looking at her twin, trying to get the root of the lie crawling out into the open.

                "Stop staring at me!" Ryoko suddenly shrieked in a voice not her own.

                Ryoko looked down at her uneaten food uncertainly. Only a half a carrot and a slice of bread and a small amount of butter spread on it. She narrowed her eyes.

                She didn't feel so safe anymore…

                At night Ryoko was the only one to stay awake. The pirate was lying on the top of a boulder, staring out into the sky filled with twinkling stars. Her thoughts started swarming like bees in her head, buzzing everywhere and not giving her a chance to think the thoughts at all. It was starting to tick her off; stupid buzzing was starting to give her a headache.

                She didn't know why she didn't feel safe, everything and everyone was perfectly fine. It confused her and she didn't like the sense of insecurity.

                'Dinner' had gone sickeningly well, the three of them being so polite to each other that she could hurl at the thought; they'd been acting like Ayeka!

                Nausea hit again, and this time she was halfway craning over the edge of the boulder before it went away. Ryoko rubbed her throat unconsciously, staring back at camp where Minagi was clutching Ryo like a teddy bear.

                _I think it's time to do something fun, Miss Sergeant Hakubi._

_                Heh-heh, you may be right there, cadet, fine thinking indeed!_

_                Why thank, Sergeant Hakubi. Perhaps throwing rocks over the top of the plateau?_

_                Nah, too lame, cadet; I need something that-_

"Miss Ryoko Hakubi, caught off her guard… I'm shocked beyond words," a voice echoed in the darkness, sounding male.

                Ryoko nearly peed herself at the voice that had invaded her private conversation with an imaginary cadet informing her that it was getting too dull.

                The voice continued, the sound of a loading gun reverberated in the canyon. "I would have thought capturing you would prove rather difficult, but I'm afraid I was wrong. You have five seconds to put you hands in the air. Four…three…"

                She put her hands in the air. Never, she thought, have I been so freaking clumsy…

                Ryoko was led back to camp, where, to her astonishment, Minagi was awake and standing with her sword drawn and pointing at her. She was glancing at her with pity, "I'm really sorry Ryoko."

                Yet the manacled woman could tell that she was not.

                "But I have to knock you out; you see Ryo is already down for the count, I put enough sleeping weed in her tea to knock her out for a day. There's no help for you here," Minagi paused, "though I'm very surprised that you were able to fully recover from that poison…" she grinned like a lunatic, "I can't believe how careless you've gotten."

                "Where's Minagi?" Ryoko retorted angrily, glaring daggers. Now she could see what Ryo had meant by the empty eyes.

                Minagi looked troubled, "What do you mean, sister dear? I'm right here, flesh and blood," she was grinning, but she looked hesitant to make that grin; but it still sent spineless shivers down Ryoko's body. Out of the corner of Ryoko's eyes, she saw Ryo-ohki bundles up tightly in blankets, dozing… No, she was unconscious. 

                Ryoko looked back at Minagi with vicious hate in her eyes. She let out a feral wail, "I swear…if you hurt her…I swear I'll-!" she was trembling now.

                The man that had handcuffed her took out a metal crowbar and smashed it over Ryoko's head, putting her out.

                Minagi's face melted into that of another woman with a large scar made by fire traveling up the side of her face. Her blue eyes flashed ominously at the now unconscious body of Ryoko slumping to the ground with a trail of blood dripping down her forehead. The woman's icy blue eyes trailed to the middle aged man with a sardonic expression on his face. His dark eyes were cold and lifeless, though if you looked far enough, you could see a light sparkle of the spry young man he used to be. 

                The woman was the first to move, walking to the body of Ryoko and bending over, looking at the gash on the pirates' head, the blood was beginning to stain her cyan hair, making it sticky to the touch. She tapped it semi-gingerly and then said in a quiet, cool voice, "You didn't need to do that, you know; a waste of good strength." In secret, she was beginning to worry about head trauma occurring. Though this woman was hardened by the vigorous tasks she'd been put through over the years, she was not one liking to deal with someone hurt or bleeding; her tactics were sneaking sedatives or poison into drinks or food. Harder, yes, but it was easier to deal with.

                The older man smirked, with his light tan hair waving in the wind. He was laughing the next second. He was yelling at her also, "I don't know how you ever got this far in the agency, you softie! The quickest way to deal with this woman (like all criminals) is to sneak up on them and catch them off guard! But no, you have to be a fricken idiot and do things the hard way!"

                She ignored him the best she could, and began to clean up the gash, wiping the blood away from the younger looking woman's face.

                "This devil destroyed your home and parents, she gave you that scar!" he pointed accusingly to the large scar on the right side of her face.

                "Morgan, shut up. I know she did. I know she destroyed my home on Okutawa; you don't need to remind me," she said this casually, pushing back the horrible memories that branched off that incident. Ryoko's face was nearly cleaned up, so she pressed the rag she'd pulled out onto the gash, soaking up the germs and bacteria. She'd had a couple semesters in medics.

                Morgan looked infuriated, his mouth working, his brain trying to think of something to say. In the end he gave up and walked over to where Ryo was lying, cuddled in blankets. 'So _this_ little twerp is the infamous Ryo-ohki, eh? This thing blew up my home planet…'

                Meanwhile, the woman was almost done with patching up the pirate up. When she was done, she pulled back a few strands of dark brown hair out of her face and stood up. "Get the little one, please."

                "Hell no! This is the thing that ruined my life," Morgan retorted brashly, lightly kicking Ryo-ohki's ribs. His eyes were filled with so much hate. "How about I take Ryoko and you this? How about it, Fran?"

                Frannie glared, but knew there was no way around it. Morgan was just too stubborn, like a two-year-old boy refusing to take a bath. "Fine," she agreed heartily, stepping over to Ryo-ohki and picking her up, not bothering to take the blankets off.

                Morgan didn't take too much concern to keep Ryoko's head from bleeding again. When they were all settled, the four of them disappeared.

                When Ryoko woke up she had terrible pains on the top of her head and a sore stiffness throughout her entire body. Horrible shivers of cold and terror ran through her when she realized everything was totally black. She knew she was awake, but she couldn't see anything!

                Panic had steamrolled her. What if everything from the point of being released from the cave had been a wonderful, fantastic…dream? Holy cow, she didn't know anymore. Ryoko tried to wail out, shout for help. She even tried to call out to that mental voice she'd always talked to when in trouble. Terror unfolded its' deadly petals and its' aroma surrounded her, trapping her. Oh man; she was scared. Her body was shaking so much she couldn't control herself anymore.

                Please…don't hurt me…

                She finally had enough mind to back up into a wall and curl up so tightly she knew she'd succeeded in drawing blood to her hands. 

                Hot tears began to build up like a dam in her eyes, and when they finally leaked out, she'd passed out in terror.

                A little girl around the age of fourteen watched with a disinterested look as a woman with a metal covering over her eyes groped the air with shaking hands, heck; the whole woman's body was shaking in pure panic.

                'She's afraid of the dark,' the girl thought with mild curiosity, 'She's afraid of the dark,' she repeated. Though she was sure afraid was not a good enough expression to describe the way this woman was acting. Paralyzed was more like it.

                She could now see that the woman in thought was crying, more sobbing. Though she kept staring at the crying woman, she also knew there was a sedated girl-who looked only five-with drool dripping out of her mouth as she sat there half-awake and half-asleep; the worst spot to be in when you're drugged.

                'I'm stuck in a room with drugged lunatics,' she thought serenely.

                "Report 8501, reporting for three days' absence," Fran said in a clear voice into what looked like a tape recorder. Her blue eyes glazed over when she remembered what Ryoko's reaction was to being put in the dark.

                "The date is 45-6-5901-7-87, and we now have the space pirate Ryoko in one of our cells, caught at 8:30:15:41:5 yesterday," she blinked her eyes, "Ryo-ohki is in the same cell, but at the present time being sedated in periods.

                "Ryoko has a covering over her eyes as an experiment to see how she would react. The results came in less than fifteen minutes. It seems that Ryoko is deadly horrified of the dark. Our researchers are currently trying to figure out why she is so unstable in the dark. In my opinion, I hear that she keeps muttering about a certain cave she says she was locked in for several centuries.

                "This must be the cave Yosho (the Prince of Jurai) was rumored to lock her in. Being locked in the dark for what seems to be 700 years must have made an infallible phobia of being in the darkness. Ryoko is in complete terror and panic.

                "The sedatives we gave her don't seem to be making a difference in making her 'dumb'. The panic looks like it's ruling the ballgame now.

                "Also, the Deltan girl we caught in that camp has been silent the whole time; the sedatives we give her don't have any effect either. The doctor's are obviously puzzled by this; they're still looking into it as of this day.

                "Now to report what happened in my absence.

                "Ryo-ohki in starship form was outside the planet Ranti. When they saw the planet Todain in the wrong place, they stayed away from the planet from nearly a week. They were going to leave when their food storages dropped dramatically (due to our tinkering with the subspace pocket holding the food), they had no choice but to land on Ranti, despite their suspicions.

                "The illusion of this planet was deceivable once again, but the two of them did not see the full illusion, only the nature of it. The civilization was non-existing in their eyes. Once the superiors caught wind of this, they ordered Morgan and I to search the two of them out and catch them off their guard, in the meantime collecting information.

                "I took the image of Minagi, the girl that looks exactly like Ryoko we caught three weeks ago. We questioned Minagi and found out the necessary information to fool even the wisest.

                "To my surprise, the little girl known as Ryo-ohki was extremely cautious around me; she'd noticed quirks in the image (i.e. blank eyes, voice pitch changing every now and then), and the major thing was that I had 'popped' out of nowhere and claimed to have no memory of how or why I'd gotten there. But after three days I'd managed to win her trust.

                "I'm going ahead of myself. Before I appeared, I shot a dart of poison at the both of them. Ryo-ohki wasn't affected; but Ryoko was sick for about two weeks, the symptoms show even now.

                "After Ryo-ohki trusted me, Morgan snuck up on Ryoko and handcuffed her; then when he brought her back to the camp we'd made, he bashed her over the head with a metal crowbar. I'd put a dose of sleeping weed to knock Ryo-ohki out for at least a day. After that, we brought them here, to Yucatu Prison.

                "Ending report, I'm out." 

                Ryoko was calm now, her panic washed away by mere common sense. She still rested against the wall. Her eyes felt dry and itchy; her cheeks were sticky with tears and blood mixed. The pain on her head was dull now, though the cut had opened and now there was blood all over her face. Her throat was hoarse from trying to cry out, the panic had blocked off her throat.

                Her brain had been full in on the panic except for one little section. This one place kept saying: "You are _not_ in the cave. There would be no cement and you'd be able to see that if you were in there, you wouldn't be able to move. So pipe down!"

                Ryoko lifted up a sweaty hand to where she thought was her face. Her fingertips brushed against something that felt like cool metal. It shocked her slightly. She concentrated for a second, curling her fingers over the edge of the covering and tugging. First slowly, then began with increasing power. The covering pulled off fluently, the elastic band holding it on snapping and whipping her palm.

                At first she was startled and blinded by the bright white lights, and was forced to shield her eyes with her arm. Then, with painstaking slowness, she let her arm fall to the ground and squinted her eyes; the lights were way too bright, it felt like she was looking directly at the sun. Gradually, she started to see things with more focus. Like Ryo-ohki sitting at the other end of the room, staring into space with a string of drool dangling out of her mouth. She also saw a girl looking no older than fifteen sitting on a block of cement built in the corner to serve as a bed with a tiny pillow (she'd guessed the block to be a couch at first, but when she saw the pillow and made the conclusion that it was a bed, she winced; her back wasn't going to agree with that).

                The girl had raven hair and brilliant green eyes. She was gazing back at Ryoko with a look that made her eyes look cold and deadly, because they now looked acid green. 

                Ryoko nearly laughed, Washu had had the same ability to scare people by rendering her eyes dull.

                Instead, her glance was once again carried down to the covering that had scared her so much. Flashes of rage struck her. She raised her hand and brought down to the ground hard; the covering broke in two under the pressure. She wanted to destroy it…this thing had almost turned her mind against her…

                Ryoko threw it to the side and let out a quiet sigh, leaning onto the hard wall, trying in vain to get herself comfortable.

                She scanned the room once more. It was your average sized cell, though much bigger, towering up three stories. There was no door or window except a small box thing at the way top of the ceiling, like a skylight, though it was much too small for people to slip through. The walls were a pale white color that made the light coming from nowhere seem brighter. 

                Ryoko looked back down to the ground. The light seemed to pound, invading her mind. Her head was beginning to throb under the pressure. It was like being too far down in sea. The water was going to squash her mind…

                She felt a rock have contact with her head and jumped, a single spot of blood dripping down her face from where the scab opened up. Ryoko saw that the girl was concentrating.

                "Ignore the pressure, it'll only make you feel sick," the girl said simply, and then went back to staring at anything that was in her line of vision.

                Ryoko was dazed for a moment, and then nodded. Trying to think of things that would get this feeling of someone raping her mind out. A feeling of déjà vu kept going over her. All this pounding was too much like Kagato reading her mind, telling her that feelings were useless pieces of shit. 

                One time, she remembered, she'd asked why emotions were so bad. He hadn't beaten her, like she'd thought he would; rather, he showed her a family that was poor, but managing well with seven kids. The father had been a skirt chaser, and was cheating on his wife. When he brought it out into the open (actually, the wife had barged in on him and another woman), the father had ditched the entire family, leaving nothing behind except his kids. Kagato had forced Ryoko against her will to watch the family for years and years. The mother had tried to keep going, loving her children as fiercely as she could. But in the end, she was still heartbroken over the father, and started to be abusive. This had happed three years after he had left.

                After the mother died, Kagato made her stop watching (those five years had been the calmest), and she had asked him if that's what had happened to him. She had been curious, five years of him letting her go had softened her a little. He had hit her. He said that it was none of her business, and that asking people questions like that was inappropriate and asked for discipline. She'd gotten scared then (she was always scared in the back of her mind), she was so scared that she lost control of herself and ran away as fast as she could. Fatal mistake, one that would have killed her if Kagato had purposely forgotten that she'd softened up. But she lived; he hadn't hit her that hard that day, but his invading her mind had felt like being raped. He was scanning every good memory she had. He had made her lose her memory once again that day, that was why she had previously thought that she'd been born 2000 years ago instead of her 5000.

                Ryoko was unaware that she was shaking.

                A few hours later Ryoko was sleeping in an uncomfortable position, her legs bent in awkward angles. Her neck bent downward so that it looked dislocated, out of proportion. Ryoko's hand lay on the ground, the fingertips dabbed with blood because of her trying to patch up the gash a little more but ended up opening it and making it bleed worse than before. She was dreaming of being blanketed in flames, flames that licked her body and burned away her skin. There was screaming. A child was screaming…

                "_My eyes! They're burning! My eyes are burning!_" Ryoko wailed, waking up and pressing her hands to her eyes. They stung badly when the light touched her eyes again. She squinted, wiping the sweat from her forehead away slowly.  She gulped in a shaky breath. The dream had been so vivid it was scary. The heat of the flames engulfing her body…the screams of the child had been full of terror and pain. The way she wanted to make the screaming stop, running into the flames and burning her eyes. Her eyes had burned; she could actually feel them _burn_…

                She looked up and over to where Ryo-ohki slept. She still looked drugged, but not as bad. She looked half-conscience of her surroundings, and when she saw Ryoko, she grinned and lifted her small hand in a little attempt to wave.

                Ryoko waved back. With a small encouraging smile, saying, "Go ahead and sleep. Everything is going to be a-okay." Except the thing was that everything _wasn't_ going to be okay. She didn't know where she was, less even of what planet she was on. With everything like what was happening now, it was going to turn out to be the worst six months ever.

                Ryo grinned drowsily and fell over, snoozing peacefully.

                The summoner stayed quiet for a little while afterward, curled up in a ball in the corner, breathing in and out in practiced breathing techniques. They were useful every now and then; breathe in slowly and let it go out of your nose slowly. It helped her keep her temper at times. Her ocher eyes looked at the girl with raven hair once again. The girl wasn't asleep, or if she was, she was sleeping sitting up. Ryoko had in mind that she might be meditating, sitting on the small pillow to keep her backside from going numb. 

                Ryoko shifted and had to bite her tongue to keep from yelping. She'd been lying in the same uncomfortable position for too long. Her legs cracked and refused to stretch without making her hurt. Having her necked craned that way for so long she could barely turn it without the pain getting to her. The thing that hurt the most was the gash on her scalp. A few more streaks of blood made their way down her forehead before being swept away by her hand.

                She looked at the smeared blood on her hand with a little regret. If she had been with Kagato still…this gash would hurt a lot more and he would be sure to make it bleed so much that she-

                _Stop it!_ She shouted at herself, _For God's sake stop it!_

Ryoko jumped and looked around suspiciously. The girl with green eyes was also speculating her with curious wonder.

                "What?" Ryoko asked, staring at her the way she was looking at her; narrowing her eyes and making them look like a cat ready to strike in the darkness. 

                "You screamed," she said simply. "You had a dream."

                Ryoko huffed, "I did have a dream…once. That was a long time ago. I screamed because my…um…eyes. They burned and stung. And this pounding hurts my head."

                "They said it wasn't suppose to hurt anyone except the criminals who are on the Eternally Wanted List. The probing shouldn't affect you in anyway unless you're not used to it," the girl paused, "you look like one who's been probed before, so it shouldn't hurt you."

                Ryoko rubbed her forehead, wiping away more dripping blood. "And I take it cells like these neutralize any outside forces. Like teleportation?"

                "You got it."

                "Wonderful!" Ryoko cried out enthusiastically, moving to try once more and get comfortable. "I'll never get to sleep again if those lights stay on. Why don't they go off?"

                The girl looked confused, and then said, "There are no lights in here. It's pitch black except for the moon."

                Ryoko shook her head, "No way. The lights are the walls. They're really, really bright. You sure you're not blind?"

                "I'm sure I can see quite well, thank you very much. But no, there are no lights. I can barely see you."

                Ryoko looked confused, and said, "What?"

                The next day Ryo was up and running, but was so hyped up she was literally running around, bouncing off the walls. Ryoko kept on saying that she'd had too much tea; the girl with raven hair said nothing. 

                **'No one can stop me now!'** Ryo-ohki cried, performing two back-flips and a somersault. Once she'd run straight into the wall and ended up with a bleeding nose but still laughed and ran around some more, blood spotting the ground in various places. **'Haha!'** she laughed, **'I have cabbit-power! I will destroy any evil that decides to hurt the forces of _love_!'** to emphasize the word, love, she hugged herself and puckered her lips. **'I will triumph over bad…things! _Carrot ATTACK_! _Kaboom_!'**

                "Are you sure you're not insane, Sailor Cabbit-Power?" Ryoko asked, smiling to the humanoid, which had stopped in her steps to wipe the blood away from her mouth. Ryo looked at her insultingly, and then began to run around like a maniac.

                **'Sailor Cabbit-Power!'** Ryo said and she pretended to twirl a baton in the air and then pointed to Ryoko.

                **'Powerful Carrot Kaboom _Attack_! Take that you fiend!'**

                Ryoko decided to play along. She clutched her heart and gasped loudly, reaching her other hand into the air, and then she collapsed onto the ground, careful not to hit her head too hard.

                The sound of rushing feet came over to Ryoko and she felt a foot on her side. She looked up and saw Ryo holding a V sign for all those who cared to see. 

                "Get off her! This isn't a playground!" the girl finally shouted, so mad it surprised both of them. She was standing up now, glaring at Ryo-ohki with all the hate in her eyes that she could muster. Her very body looked to be on fire. 

                Ryo was so startled she obeyed immediately, looking at the teen with a kind of fear. Ryoko sat up and studied the girl slowly, she looked like she was scared of herself for a moment, blowing up like that. The girl stood with her fists shaking in their clenched position. She stood there, trembling at her outburst.

                "Oh my God…" Ryoko heard her say under her breath, the girl glancing at her hand with disgust.

                "I'm sorry I yelled," she said. _'Look at yourself. You're **sorry**! Oh think of what you're grandma would say right now! Her poor deceased heart!_' "I'm just not in the mood today, alright?"

                Ryoko nodded wordlessly.

                As the girl walked back to her seat on the 'bed', Ryoko and Ryo-ohki looked at each other with curious eyes. Now they both had questions that demanded to be answered. First of all, what was her name? Ryoko, thought having a small conversation with her, hadn't found that out, though she had told her own. Even after the girl had told her that there were no lights in there, Ryoko still felt like they were invading her mind. Always pounding with that horrible light. 

                Ryo, still shaken by the girls' outburst, was now settled down enough to sit on her bottom and not move. She didn't know why she'd been so hyper in the first place; must have been being sedated so long with energy just biding its' time inside her. Actually, she thought it was because she was hungry, though she had no idea why.

                With the whole room quiet, it seemed more luminous and big than before, and the pounding that Ryoko kept on feeling seemed (to her, anyway) to get louder and stronger. All that pounding was going to drive her up the wall if it didn't stop soon. Her thoughts were being crushed.

                She reached up and touched the gash again, lightly.  It was just starting to scab over again, but it still hurt to touch, it causing a cold shiver of pain to run through her body. The gash itself was hidden in a tumble of her cyan hair (due to her wanting to get it out of sight), so some hair was stubbornly sticking to it when she felt it. It was small, about the size of her middle finger extended around an inch or so, but it was still big enough to make her frustrated on how to move around this carefully, without exposing the crack (she supposed her head was cracked when the weapon hit her head, but someone probably patched it up, of course they wanted to keep her alive), or hurting it by moving her head too fast or accidentally bumping it into someone.

                Ryoko folded her arms and pouted, looking dazedly at the ground, when was someone going to come? Or were they going to forget about them and leave them to rot? Ryoko shook her head at the latter. As far as she knew it was illegal (no matter the circumstance), to leave a kid younger than twenty inside a cell for five days without care. But then again, she reasoned, these guys might be criminals just looking for a reason to hurt.

                "Hey, you," Ryoko said, looking at the girl.

                She didn't look at her, but gave a nod to acknowledge she was listening.

                "How many days do you suppose you've been here without anyone coming to visit? Besides us coming in; think hard, now."

                "Three days at the most. It could be four, I lost track."

                Ryoko nodded, "Alright, thank you."

                "Yeah, whatever."

**Interlude (part one)**

**My word is my bond,**

**My bond is my word,**

**Which is as sharp as my sword,**

**And I am thy lord.**

-King Arthur-

                At the same time that a young man came and told the three that they were to come with him, Kiyone and Mihoshi were reporting back to headquarters with what had happened the months that they were gone.

                "This is amazing!" the Chief said in surprise, thumbing through their report while they stood in front of his desk, still in their saluting position. 

                The two of them looked as normal as can be. Mihoshi was beginning to look more ditzy again, but Kiyone wasn't sure if it was because she didn't want to be promoted, public, or just because it was so…_her._ Mihoshi's partner looked tired, with shadows under her eyes crying out: "_Eek! We need sleepy-time! Eek-eek_!" For crying out loud, she hadn't had sleep for the past four days; Kiyone was just hoping that they'd get a small break after this. The two of them had been working nonstop since they'd flown from earth. But, she said to herself, it was to work back the weeks we missed, the two of them hadn't been able to think straight or clearly enough to be designated drivers or tough 'Can't Touch Me, neener-neener-neener,' cops after Washu had fallen into a coma. But after the scientist died, somehow they were workaholics, couldn't get enough of it actually. They'd caught more criminals or gangs, than all their years partnered together combined.

                The Chief was still skimming the report, even after he'd let the two of them stop their salute. Mihoshi looked to be off in La-La Land, while Kiyone seemed to be falling asleep standing up.

                All the report was about was the routes and people the duo had caught. The report was about ten pages long (due to Mihoshi wanting to describe every little thing in the smallest detail). So, it was more like a short story than anything, if truth were told.

                The two of them were thinking the same thing at once when the Chief looked up from the papers with a broad smile on his face, _'Are we getting promoted?'_

"Well now, cadets, you've truly done a stupendous job these last few months."

                "Yes, _sir_!"

                "The next mission is try and spy on the gang, Swa-tung. They're causing a lot of trouble in Ikudar, Section 982103. Be careful though, they're vicious. Their leader-nff, just look them up in Yagami, that's the ship you're using, right?"

                They nodded; Mihoshi had wanted to give Yukinojo a vacation, despite Kiyone's persistence. Yukinojo was faster and more immune to viruses than Yagami, plus Yukinojo was self-evolving, but Mihoshi had held out to the very bitter end (they had gotten into a fairly mean, lean, argument; Kiyone had come close to using brass knuckles). 

                Kiyone said, before the Chief could turn around, "Please, sir, could we have a small break, just a day? I promise we'll get right with the program after I get some sleep."

                Chief looked at her face, saw the shadows under their eyes and said with a small smile on his face, "Very well. But instead of one day take three, you look exhausted," he turned around and said, "Be sure to be in Ikudar by Thursday, however."

                "Yessir!" Kiyone said with gratitude in her voice, "We promise!" and she smiled.

                "The Chief sure is nice, don't you think?" Mihoshi asked lightly, still looking far off in her eyes. The two of them were having a lunch break, and Kiyone had gotten Mihoshi a bowl of Oriental Ramen Noodles, and herself a small salad with French dressing.

                Kiyone shrugged and played with her food, yawning and wiping away some water in her eyes. "I dunno, whatever you say, Mihoshi…"

                "You really _are_ tired, huh?" Mihoshi asked, handing Kiyone a napkin as some food fell onto her lap. 

                "_Oh_, well caught," she said sarcastically, taking the napkin and wiping away what she could. She watched as Mihoshi took a slurp of noodles and then added, "Don't slurp your food. Bad manners."

                They were back on Yagami now, and Kiyone was snoozing in a small cot she'd kept in the back of the ship for emergencies. Since she'd been missing out on sleeping for the past couple of days Mihoshi had been sleeping on her bed. But she'd had some work to finish up so she could have the vacation free and Mihoshi had gotten to the bed first.

                Kiyone bit her tongue in irritation, the cot was more uncomfortable than it was when she'd last slept on it (that was when Mitsuki had been her partner, that 'lazy old bat' had hogged her bed for herself and forced Kiyone to sleep on the cot, but that had been what? Seven years ago?), but of course they'd been forcing the criminals they'd been catching to sleep on it with an itchy sweater, so one or two of them might've tried to return the favor.

                As she turned around and finally gave up and folded the cot to sleep on the floor (at the time the floor seemed more comfy), she started to wonder why her partner had been so…_off_, lately. Like in her little world she used to have. One time she'd freaked Kiyone out so much when she'd started choking on her piece of bread, but she was making no move to try and hack it up. Kiyone nearly slammed her back so hard that it left a bruise, though the next day Mihoshi had complained it to be a bit sore. What scared her then is that she didn't remember a thing of what happened. A couple years ago she would have thought this to be a completely normal trait, as the people in the academy used to call her 'Loithaw', which was supposedly supposed to stand for either 'lost in thought' or 'few cards short of a deck'. Sometimes a couple little kids used to say right out loud in the hallway, '_Hey, Mihoshi? Wanna play poker? No wait! I guess you can't…all you have are jokers! Ha-Ha-Ha.'_

Those were the days when they hadn't really met yet, they had been acquainted as partners for a project, but that had been about it. They'd been made friends when they'd been partnered on their first small mission. Though it was like stealing candy from a baby compared to what they were doing now, that first day out there in space following a map to its' X-Marks-The-Spot. She remembered her dismay when the destination had been nothing other than a planet where flowers flourished. Mihoshi, however, had been jumping for joy, though she'd refused to pick some flowers because "_Would you like it if a giant decided to pluck your hair out?_" and she remembered how that quote suddenly fixed her point of view, and then she had joined Mihoshi in planting the couple seeds Mihoshi usually pocketed (for reasons Kiyone still didn't understand).

                To her surprise, the floor _was_ more comfy than that awful cot. Okay, okay, so it wasn't a Care Bear Cloud, but it was still surprisingly nice. Using her arm as a pillow, she let herself remember things she hadn't thought about in ages…

                …_A fifteen-year-old Kiyone looked around at the hospital, holding a little white sheet of paper flecked with blood. She'd paper cut herself; but at the time she didn't care. She'd come as soon as she'd heard Mihoshi was in the hospital. Of course (to her fury), they had to wait three days before telling her. The room was supposed to be room 95, but when she'd gotten in there she'd been booted right out by a person making out in there with one of the nurses. Kiyone had been feeling green in the face ever since, because she couldn't tell if that person had been a boy or girl. She made it a boy in her mind to make her stomach settle. _

_                And that stupid desk person wouldn't let her have the number unless she was _family_. Kiyone had pretty damn near ripped her head off: Miss Little Tooty to you, bucko. So now she was checking every number that had a 95 in it, it hadn't occurred to her yet that the number might be a 26. Of course, she hadn't been very aware lately, either, having lost a lot of sleep over trying to finish the project Mihoshi and she were working on._

_                Not watching where she was going, she tripped over an old man's cane and landed smack dab on her nose. Now that was something to worry about, but still the stubborn teen refused to acknowledge the fact that blood was now streaming out of her nose. Because right now she could see the number upside down and was now resisting giving her face another bruise to think about._

_                Standing up quickly, she stuffed the paper into her pocket and darted down the stairs, keeping her face covered with her arm to make it look like she had the sniffles rather than what felt like a smashed nose. People looked at her oddly as she rushed past, but made the conclusion that she was running to the bathroom, though in fact it was completely on the other side of the building. Oh well, perhaps she wanted to take the long way, they thought with a small smile on their face._

_                Room 26 came into view and she stopped in front of it, pulling her arm away and not caring that it looked like she was bleeding to death. She stood there and listened for a moment to make sure she didn't burst into another "sight a human should never see in emergencies in their lifetime"._

_                And she opened the door and walked in._

_                It was empty, except for a lump on the bed Kiyone assumed to be Mihoshi. Walking closer, she saw Mihoshi staring off with that faraway look Kiyone would come to know and accept a long time from then. Mihoshi was a year younger than Kiyone, but was very successful in school and was able to shoot up a grade. But right now Mihoshi looked old and withered, it spooked Kiyone right to her roots._

_                "Wow! Kiyone!" Mihoshi suddenly cried out in glee, looking different from her usual self, ditsy, even; like that bubblehead they liked to try and help from bullies._

_                "Yeah," Kiyone replied, pulling up a chair and a little tree of get-well-soon cards from out of her pack "Here you go, I scrounged around for your old buddies to give you a card. Sadly, most are from you're nanny, I couldn't find a couple people-" she shut herself up. The whole thing was a lie, anyway. She'd made about five and made other people write about three._

_                Mihoshi shook her head, "I-no offence-no, I don't want it. I'm sorry but getting nine cards from two people kinda ruins the whole point," she smiled a little, trying to hide the bandage on her head._

_                Kiyone snickered, "Oh well," she tossed the tree into the trash and strained a grin, "I don't want to know how you know but I'm glad to see you look yourself."_

_                "Really? Even when they had to pretty much shave me friggin bald?" she motioned to her scalp where only a thin layer of hair remained._

_                Kiyone shrugged, "It doesn't matter," she tried to say calmly, but Mihoshi's eyes looked like they were changing, and it unnerved her. _

_                "Aw, are you coming out of the closet or are you just being nice?"_

_                "Will you quit with that? I-am-not-a-frickin-lesbian! Get it out of your head!" Kiyone yelped loudly, mad._

_                Mihoshi shut up for a moment and then said, "Kiyone? Don't you think planet Nam has beautiful flowers? I've always wanted to go there, you know? I think I've told you that before…"_

_                "No, I don't think so," Kiyone shuddered; she looked like a bubblehead again._

_                "The flowers there are supposed to be really pretty. Probably not your kind of planet, huh?" Mihoshi uttered in a soft voice._

_                "No, not really," Kiyone croaked. "Mihoshi…you're starting to scare me…"_

_                "Really?" Mihoshi asked, looking far off again, "you shouldn't be. I wouldn't scare you…"_

But now she was. Kiyone shot up so fast that she smacked her head against the cabinet. 

                "Oh my God," she croaked, getting up as fast as she could and running to the deck just in time to see Mihoshi disappear.


End file.
